If your users do not have write acccess to HKLM, Fireworks will display an error at startup relating to 'Launch and Edit with Dreamweaver', until the application is launched by a user with write access to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Fireworks.exe

The issue is caused by the MSI creating the value as:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Fireworks 8\ (derived from [INSTALLDIR]).
Fireworks doesn't seem to like the \ at the end of the value.

Since my install was always going to be installed to the same location, as it's a silent, per computer install, I transformed the MSI (by replacing the registry value of [INSTALLDIR] with C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Fireworks 8

If your deployment installdir will vary, then you'll probably need to write a script to remove the \ from the end of the registry value.

The standard installation of Studio 8 does not allow you to install the application unattended. You can take specific files and place them in a folder together and build your own installer using an AutoIt3 script compiled into an exe along with your license and activation information.

You need the following files from the Studio 8 cd in the FSCOMMAND folder.

The last step is to do an installation of the application and enter the serial number and activate it. Once you have done this you can copy the Macromedia folder out of:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data
Include this directory in the same folder on your system as the other files listed above. After you have copied the Macromedia folder be sure to enter the directory and remove the "Flash 8" folder to cut down on copy time as it has nothing to do with the licensing of the product.

Move the main folder you created on your system to a network location and install it using the compiled AutoIt3 script.

After contacting macromedia and wasting my time, it seems that the registration info is no longer stored in the registry, it may actually put some info there but when firing up the programs, the only place it seems to check is c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\macromedia\licensing\products\dreamweaver 8.0 or the varying product name it looks for installer.mlf and license.mlf which can be copied from your registered package and distributed with each program after including these files in the transforms for all the different programs its quite simple.

A: Retrieve the registry information in HKEY_CURENT_USER to import into Default User Hive

B: Retrieve the license.mlf, activation.mlf and registration.mlf files. There is a seperate license.mlf file for each application except extension manager and video encoder.

3./ Need to make sure the MSI package adds those files to the corect directory in ALL USERS profile. Create a CUSTOM ACTION that loads the Default User hive and imports the Macromedia registry into it.

Created an administrative install for each app. Using the tip below i then created an mst with orca to fix the path issue for fireworks.

I then used the freeware version of Advanced Installer to create a MSI that would copy the licensing/activation information as specified in this abobe article.

When it came time to try deploying the packages with group policy everything worked fine except for firework. For some reason when i tried to add fireworks to a GPO it would be detected as chinese. I had to modify to the actual msi file to fix this. I used a utility called MSIinfo.exe that i download from microsoft as part of the Platform SDK.

I first ran:

MsiInfo.Exe "Macromedia Fireworks 8.msi"

It returned this for the "Template" value:

Intel;1033,2052,1028,1036,1031,1040,1041,1042,1034

I first removed 1028 (chinese) but it then started detect german so i also removed 1031 (German) and then it started working.

There are differences between SP1 and SP2 for where the All Users folder is, so make sure you get this right.
SP1 has it at C:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users...
SP2 has it at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users...

I had a bit of trouble trying to get the Contribute Administrative Install to work - I kept getting errors about the ISScript.MSI. Finally, I downloaded the latest v11 isscript.msi from InstallShield here : ISScript11.zip.

I have an alternative workaround to the issue mentioned by trudolph where Fireworks fails to install when deployed by group policy due to language settings (in the summary template). Rather than modifying the source (MSI or MST), in the advanced deployment options in group policy, I chose to ignore the language for this package. This allowed Fireworks 8 to install successfully.